forumpersona999

Rule of thumb is:

1) If there are touts outside the shop, forget it.

2) If you are asked to pay in full or leave a large deposit before the first fitting, knock it back. 30%-50% of the final price would be the most you would want to deposit.

3) If there are signs outside offering suits with two pairs of trousers for 99/199 USD/EUR, walk away. Proper shops don't need to advertise door-buster prices in foreign currency to do business.

Dr. HFH

Agree completely with Forumpersona999. Re #3, watch particularly for sandwich boards on the sidewalk.

Mkaron

The casual shirts are definitely a worthwhile purchase. For $30 you can get a shirt that fits you well and it will last. I don't know the sort of fit you get for a pre-made shirt but these will fit you well. Rajawongse make good, cheap shirts. Once you get your shirts custom made you probably won't want to buy in a store again. You won't be throwing money away if you go for a suit or two either. Jesse and Victor know all about fitting you, so you don't need to worry about that! They will make you a nicely fitted, reasonable quality polyester/wool blend suit that will look ok too. There are claims that you would be buying a 50/50 wool cashmere suit from Italy or England however this is untrue. Interestingly nobody seems to be able to name the fabric! If you do go there, please report back with the exact details of the fabric that you bought, as in name of producer, collection, supers count etc as so far it is a mystery!

They are safe choice. As an alternative if you want truly high quality tailor but expensive, with imported fabrics (non Chinese) go to Tanika's.

stallion114

Thanks Mikaron.
I will go with a few shirts for sure.
Still not sold on the suit, partially because like I said I only wear one a handful of times a year, and already own 4 of them which is way more then I need already.

A well fitting casual shirt would be a great deal at $30.

I will report back when I get them.

stallion114

I screwed up.
I typed in Rajas on google thinking that was the name and ended up going to Rajas fashions which was recomended in the other thread but not where I was planning on going. Turns out it is 2 middle eastern guys that look a lot like the rajowese website I had looked at days earlier. Plus they had pictures of generals on the wall so I thought I was at the place.

Anyway prices were higher then what was quoted here because I was at the wrong shop.

I ended up paying 6000 bht for 5 shirts + 2000 bht to ship because he could not make them in time.

8000 bht for 5 shirts is way more ($38/shirt, $51 w/shipping) then I wanted to pay and I am pretty pissed about it.

The first fitting was pretty close to perfect according to bobby. I was trusting his judgement. I will say it was the best fitting shirt I have ever had but mostly because I have an 18" neck, 6' 190 so any 18" neck dress shirt I buy is always way to big and long everywhere else.

Live and learn I suppose. In the end I only spent $255 so if they turn out ok I wont lose any sleep.

Dr. HFH

Once again this poster alleges that the fabric being sold is not what it is represented to be. S/he even claims to have done the testing to establish the truth of the allegation, claiming that it is very easy to do.

Yet, despite repeated requests for information on, and the results of, the test(s) which s/he allegedly did, the poster simply ignores the requests. Again, I will say. If, Mkaron, you have actually performed the tests (as you claim) which you say prove that the material is a polyester blend, I know that I want to see it; and I'm sure that many other FT BKK suit buyers would be interested, too.

Caveat emptor. When someone says that they have information proving the truth/validity of his/her claim but refuses to provide it, that usually means that the claim is not true.

TRAVELSIG

One place I have used with good success and who delivers quite high quality is Narin Couture at 180 Sukhumvit (bewteen Soi 8 and 10). Worth checking out if you want to get something made that is quality. Pricing will depend on fabric, however if you estimate ~1800 THB for a shirt and ~18000 for a suit you will be in good shape:
http://www.narin-couture.com/home.html

tnmlyger

Not sure what exactly you're complaining about :-). You walked in the wrong shop but by chance ended up in one of the best ones in Bangkok. The first fitting went (almost) perfectly and you're getting the final result shipped home. I've been a customer of Raja's for 15 years now and still have some shirts from 1997 that I still wear today. If that's not good quality, I don't know what is. I'm happy to pay a little bit more for quality.

aBroadAbroad

Welcome to one of the most popular topics in the Thailand destination forum… after about ten years of ongoing discussion, the original Bangkok Tailors thread had become so large as to be difficult to manage, requiring a split.

Posts from prior to 2013 can now be found in the http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thail...hlight=Tailors thread.

Thanks!

tf21

Just got back from a trip to Bangkok and thought I'd share my tailoring experiences...

First off, I should say my standards are reasonably high, so take these comments with that in mind if I appear to be being picky! I use one of the better known higher-end shirtmakers in HK (for my nice shirts) as well as a smaller/ocal/cheaper HK shirtmaker (for everday!), and my suits/trousers come from a London tailor who is Saville-row trained but works from a small workshop in the backstreets out of the centre (i.e. high quality but very keen prices).

I was mainly looking for shirts in Bangkok, with half an eye on some trousers - being only there for a few days made a making a (decent!) suit not an option, but I was curious to try one of the better tailors in town in case a future longer visit might make a suit feasible. Someone I know who lived in Bangkok for a while suggested I try Narin, Tanika, and Milan, the first two being the only bangkok tailors who could (and regularly do) produce a floating canvassed jacket in house (having owned a couple of canvassed suits, they're worth the extra over fused, in my opinion). Milan being a cheaper option as a comparison. Narin was out of the question - I asked and they couldn't work with my timescales. Milan could, were quite reasonably priced - however, while the pattern selection was good, their fabric quality was average at best and the workmanship on their shirts was a bit rough (i.e. poorer than my cheaper HK shirtmaker, where I pay USD40-50 per shirt). Suiting cloth selection was also not great.

That left Tanika. After a good chat with the lady front of house (who is clearly a tailor herself, not a saleswoman, and very competent - a safe pair of hands which is what you want in a tailor!), I placed an order for some shirts and a few pairs of trousers.

Shirts first. They have a good range of good quality fabric in the shop - while not super extensive, I could easily have walked away with 10 or so nice patterns. Fabric is generic "english or italian" but nice quality. They have swatch books there as well - with more time you can order other fabrics in but I didn't go into that. Not having time to have a fitting, I brought in a well-fitting HK shirt for them to use. They made a very accurate copy and also incorporated some minor fit adjustments which were done well. I'm extremely happy with the outcome. Construction is excellent, shell buttons are used as standard, the interlinings are nice, the stitching is extremely neat and well finished. The only minor point is that they seem to have used a slightly lower number of stitches per inch than either of my HK shirts, which makes the stitching slighly more noticeable on the collars/cuffs, but this is a very minor point. Altogether, top marks! I paid THB2500 per shirt, which puts them bang slap in the middle of my two HK shirtmakers, and a fair price (i.e. the shirts are better quality, largely due to the fabric, than my cheaper HK shirts, but not as nice as my nice HK shirts, for which I pay roughly 25-50% more for branded and nice fabric).

Trousers. The in house fabric selection is good, no blends here, just decent quality wool with some higher end stuff too (some Loro Piana in stock, they can also get other fabrics in via swatch books - again, I didn't go into this). I ended up with a couple of pairs at THB5000, and one gorgeous thick flannel at THB6000. This is a little less than half the price of my London tailor. I had one fitting. The outcome for the price was very good. The fit is generally very good though there are a couple of minor points that need addressing (this is me being picky, though, and having the benefit of numerous pairs of extremely well fitting trousers - with hindsight, I should have taken a pair with me to be copied!). Construction again is excellent and these are well finished with neat stitching. Again, being picky, the trousers are entire machine stitched, where as my london trousers feature relatively extensive hand stitching, which is relatively easy to spot (e.g. around the pockets/fly). In short, though, excellent value and I'm happy. Goes to show you generally get what you pay for.

Other thoughts... Tanika's suits are all floating canvass. The price I was quoted (THB39000 for a decent fabric) seem a little on the high side, especially compared to the trousers, and also in comparison with what I current pay and what I know you can get in HK (e.g. that's about USD1200, which is what the best HK tailors charge). That said, they clearly know what they're doing - the work-in-progress in the shop looked excellent, and the general construction and style of the jackets was very similar to what I've seem in London (e.g. also compared to Narin, whose suits I've seen being worn and who have a more continental european look). They do their own tailoring out the back. They have some nice women's clothing in progress in the shop. Did I mention that the lady is a safe pair of hands?! I should also say that their service was excellent, they pulled out all the stops to make the clothes in time (and I was aware that my schedule was extremely tight).

In summary, highly recommended if looking for an higher-end tailor in Bangkok. If pushed though, I'd say that HK is still probably a better place to get clothes made, if only for the choice on offer.

surfguy7

Anyone know if tailors in Bangkok will be open on Sunday of the weekend of the water festival?

GetSetJetSet

Nothing will be open.

As for tailors, I just went back to Narin Couture on Sukhumvit Soi 10. I am very pleased with their work. It is equivalent to what some much pricier NY tailors I have used produced. Def the only guy I will go to in BKK.

surfguy7

That's a great recommendation. Could you give any sample prices?

GetSetJetSet

varies highly by what you want. The low end for a jacket will be around $3-500 USD. They do the work to your specs so if you want higher end fabric, fully canvassed etc...it can push towards 1k USD for a jacket. Fluent in English, French and Thai, just stop in and chat with him, should be able to feel out what you want. Two sport coats and a white dinner jacket just arrived from BKK yesterday...again, very pleased.

Peppep

How much should I expect to pay for a suit + one shirt with average to good quality and fabrics in Bangkok? It'll be my first tailored suit, and I suppose my standards aren't incredibly high. It won't be used professionally, only for a few special occasions, Christmas etc.